U.S. Pat. No. 5,868,746 to Sarver describes a generic bone plate. The Sarver patent discloses an X-shaped bone plate, which has four boreholes at its four extremities. A disadvantage of the Sarver “X”-shaped bone plate is that the four boreholes do not have any means for connecting the screws in a rigid, angularly stable manner with the plate.
German document DE-A 40 38 082 to Ojima discloses a double-T-shaped plate having four plate holes with a thread which can accommodate corresponding threaded cap screws. A disadvantage of this plate that it is not X-shaped. Thus, during bending or torsion along the plate's longitudinal axis, the plate exhibits a poor stress distribution and can therefore be stressed mainly in only one direction, namely in compression.